A Merry little (or not so little) Christmas!

Santa has really blessed me over the past five years! I asked Santa for these three a LONG time ago! :) What perfect little packages!

It is our year to spend Christmas with our Kentucky family this year. As we have kept having kids, it has made it harder and harder to travel with all the presents! So this year we decided to plead with Jolly Old St. Nick to make a special stop at our house a few days early. He graciously obliged and we celebrated Christmas Eve last night with our Tennessee family and woke up to Santa gifts galore this morning!

We were blessed with my Grandparents getting to come to spend this time with us as well as my mom and dad being here. Many, many times last night we talked about how much we wished my brother was here--well, they all talked about it. I couldn't talk about it without getting teary-eyed so I didn't say much about it.

Anyway, I'll let the pictures tell the stories of our festivities. Please forgive the number of pictures. I'm not real good with the collage thing and am running short on time tonight. We've had LOTS of packing and cleaning to do today to get a bright and early start to our voyage tomorrow!Here is what the tree looked like. More than we deserve, for sure!

We gave Papa and Grandma a book about their great-grandchildren--all boys! We called it the story of "Snips, Snails and Puppy Dog tails"! Sandy showed me one she had done for Rah-Rah and it was a HUGE hit with the grandparents!

Yes, we needed more weapons! This is parts of their Ninja gear!

The boys and I made ornaments for Granddaddy and Nana. It is their handprint made to look like a reindeer. The boys loved making these and the grandparents loved getting them!

This may have been the most fun part of the night! The boys got two new games, one of which was Operation! Mom was afraid Jagger would get frustrated not being able to hold steady to play. The OPPOSITE was true! He loved this. He concentrated so hard and then...

This would be his reaction as he hit the edges. Every time it buzzed was promptly followed with squeals and laughter! Such sweet, sweet sounds!

Rhett got a new 'boggin and mittens.

Since we implored Santa to come early, we thought it wise to spread the Reindeer food out just so there would be no confusion on which house he was to stop at early. :)

And Santa's been here! He's filled the boys' Santa bags to the brim!

"Christmas morning" digging into their Santa bag. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this tradition!

Jagger had a hard time getting to the bottom of his Santa bag but figured out a way! I crack up at this picture!

Rhett waiting patiently for his stocking. Guess Santa should have brought a pair of nail clippers! It would have spared him the scratches on his face he made during the night-poor thing!

Rhett got a jumper from Santa! I think Santa was a little worried whether he would like it or not, but...

obviously, he LOVED it!

Of course there were Star Wars!

...and dinosaurs!
Santa left a note beside the cookie crumbs telling the boys to look out in the back yard.

Wow! A trampoline! Santa was GOOD!!! He already had this assembled thanks to his elf helper!

Not even 12 degree weather could keep them from trying it out! They love it and I see fun times ahead with this!

We are so blessed. Not because of gifts (although we are extremely thankful for them also) but because we had family to share all of this joy and laughter with...and we get to go share some more with MORE family tomorrow. Please keep our travels in your prayers!

P.S. Rhett also got his first tooth for Christmas! Not so sure he asked Santa for that---it sure has been bothering him! A 9+ hour trip in the car with him may drive us all to the nut house if he's not feeling better by tomorrow! :)

Merry Christmas, everyone!